They are from Eritrea or Sudan and hoped to travel to the United Kingdom. Twenty-three migrants, including three women, were discovered Thursday morning in a refrigerated truck near the Belgian port of Zeebrugge.
According to the first elements of the investigation, the group had probably boarded the vehicle the previous night on a motorway parking lot in Waremme, in Wallonia, not far from Liège, in the east of the country. The temperature measured on board was 2 ° C but the federal prosecutor's office said that "none are in danger of death".
They were thinking of embarking on a direct route to the United Kingdom via a cross-Channel link. But the cargo first had to be unloaded in a company in the industrial zone of Zeebrugge, upstream from the port. This is where they were discovered, according to the prosecution. They were then turned over to the police.
The port from which the "mass truck" had left
Zeebrugge is one of the platforms for freight transport to England. It was in this same port that the refrigerated container was loaded in late October in which were discovered, shortly after unloading in an English port, the lifeless bodies of 39 Vietnamese migrants. The drama had an international impact.
According to Flemish media, the governor of West Flanders, Carl Decaluwé, called on the Belgian state to tighten controls in Zeebrugge, as well as on the coast in general. "I think we have to have the first dead so that some people wake up," he denounced, recalling the capsizing on Tuesday morning off De Panne of a boat carrying 14 migrants.
Among the latter, six were arrested. The other eight have not been found. However, they also managed to return to shore, according to various accounts. In this case, two Afghans suspected of human trafficking were detained on Wednesday.
